Category: Marketing Insights

The STEP™ Framework: Beyond Permanent Disability

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Rethinking Accessibility in Market Research

August 10, 2026

strat360 Introduces STEP™ Framework, Revealing the True Incidence of Accessibility Needs and Hidden Market Opportunity

Four-category model shows that 55-70% of consumers experience accessibility barriers, giving brands and researchers a clearer view of underserved audiences

Doylestown, PA — August 10, 2026 — For years, widely cited accessibility statistics have focused entirely on permanent disabilities. That narrow view has produced incidence estimates around 25–30%. In market research, those figures have encouraged brands to treat accessibility as a niche issue. strat360’s work with the STEP™ framework shows that this view is incomplete and that it has left many consumer voices out of the picture.

strat360 today announced the STEP™ framework, a structured way to measure accessibility in everyday life. STEP organizes accessibility experiences into four categories that together offer a clearer view of who has accessibility needs and how those needs influence everyday interactions. Accessibility is not just about permanent conditions; it is a spectrum that includes the situations, episodes, and temporary changes that shape how people interact with products, services, and communications.

The four STEP categories are:

  • S — Situational: Barriers that arise from context, such as holding a baby, using a device in bright sunlight, or navigating a loud environment.
  • T — Temporary: Short-term functional changes related to injury, illness, or medical procedures, when people may not see themselves as “disabled” but experience real differences in how they live and decide.
  • E — Episodic: Needs that come and go over time, such as those linked to chronic conditions, migraines, autoimmune disorders, or mental health episodes.
  • P — Permanent: Long-term or lifelong disabilities across sensory, cognitive, physical, or communication-related domains, which have been the traditional focus of most accessibility statistics.

Looking across all four categories, STEP estimates that 55-70% of consumers experience at least one form of accessibility barrier. Approaches focused solely on permanent disabilities have been capturing only part of the picture and have left many consumers uncounted and unheard.

Organizations that view accessibility as a compliance requirement tied to permanent disability risk designing products and communications that overlook a much broader range of consumer needs. By applying STEP, organizations can rethink how they size their accessibility audience, recognize the breadth of needs in that audience, and design experiences that speak to those needs.

For marketing researchers, STEP is a practical design tool. Using this framework, strat360 has developed questionnaires, discussion guides, and sampling approaches that bring more representative voices into studies. Rather than adding substantial length or cost, STEP guides small, universal-design adjustments to questions, screeners, and tasks so that people with situational, temporary, episodic, and permanent accessibility needs can take part and be heard.

“For too long, our field has relied on permanent-disability statistics that put accessibility incidence in the 25-30% range and make the story look small. STEP looks at situational, temporary, episodic, and permanent experiences together and shows that accessibility touches most consumers. As a leader in Insights Association’s Accessible Insights Consortium and having worked on both the client and supplier sides of market research, I have seen how modest, universal-design changes to questionnaires and discussion guides can bring many more voices into the room. The goal is simple: more clarity, more inclusion, and a much more precise picture of the people we serve,” said Steve Levine, Founder of strat360.

Inspire With Gripping Human Emotions Over Dreary Numbers

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Lesson From Big Bang Theory Finale

In this age of big data, we often find ourselves being driven by the numbers. However, being human and allowing ourselves to connect with emotions will lead to more compelling and sustainable engagement. This became especially apparent in the closing episode of Big Bang Theory. When the stoic Sheldon received a Nobel Prize, we expected something much different than what he delivered. Instead of being his usual self-centered self, he delivered a speech from the heart. Along those lines, Sheldon acknowledged that close friends were the partners who contributed to his growth and success. Not only a humble acceptance speech but one that conveyed a collaborative and inviting message.

Relating Sheldon’s speech to our professional goals, we must never forget that customers are people and people have emotions. In spite of Sheldon’s words being written for a popular television show, the takeaway is very real. Although the evolution of a character, such as Sheldon, may seem surreal, it is authentic. We evolve as real people. We are not scripted.

Perhaps this is what poet Oscar Wilde meant when writing that…

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.”

 

Everything Is A Process

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My iPhone alarm goes off in the morning and my day begins. I prepare to walk my dog, next I feed then play with him. Subsequently, I eat breakfast then prepare for my workday.

In grad school, thanks to Professor David Schuff, I find myself consciously thinking more purposely about these processes as my day evolves. Do I create Swim Lane or Affinity diagrams as I map out my day or, perhaps, some business modeling is in order? For the most part, nothing elaborate is necessary. However, by bringing higher awareness to my daily processes, I find that I am discovering ways to be efficient whether I am running simple errands or implementing a project and analyzing data for a client. Originally, I had been skeptical when examining the relevance of process in my daily life. However, I now find myself consciously thinking about ways I might take advantage of my new found awareness. In fact, today I thought through processes where I applied learned practices enabling me to effectively address delivering on three ambitious timelines while juggling a myriad of demands.

This level of thinking has also made me a better problem solver when thinking through processes professionally for clients and customers. Have you ever thought more consciously about processes we often take for granted in our daily activities? Or, how you might make these elements work better together by bringing greater process recognition to everyday routines? I think you’ll be surprised by the outcome.